ATOMIC
FUTURES
LOOK February 1957
advert (detail)for America's Independent Electric Light and Power Companies
November 1957 and a grand array of Homer Simpsons as you'll ever find in
the cause of a bright atomic future - no problems from such standardised
guys. The Glamour Element (Joyce Myron) displays her slide rule although
it has an uncanny resemblance to a marital aid.
ILLUSTRATED September 10 1955 |
BLAST
CITY
One of the
scariest of all - Mutual of Omaha's Accident Insurance diagram from Heat
Flash to Partial Structural Damage - and etched on the visual imagination
of the world. January 1951
An image
of the respective blast zones for the Atomic Bomb and the Hydrogen Bomb,
photograph September 1950.
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS July 13 1946 full page |
BIKINI
scenes of
leave taking, preparing to abandon the atoll on American suggestions
Illustrated London News August 1st 1946, p.229; the scene
from a drone plane 15,000 feet above the test explosion at the Bikini
Atoll.
Ralston Crawford's paintings suggested by the same explosion for FORTUNE
magazine, emphasising the same concentric circles of blast. Other images
in the issue of the magazine such as USS Nevada treat the destruction
up close, and, in an abstracted way, much related to his pre-war paintings.
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BOHN
AND THE REDS
Bohn Aluminium and Brass Corporation of Detroit always
projected a dynamic, thrusting image of themselves in the ads, and usually
in fanciful images of the Future (Database). In the period 1950 - 1953,
they generated some of the most alarmist and vitriolic propaganda imagery
against the Soviet Union. The copyline was that the Reds mustn't sabotage
America's strength (Bohn). The most effective images are painted by Robert
Thom who is an excellent artist in many ways - and celebrated for his
re-creations of great moments in medicine. Here he creates images of Soviet
deceit and power that have few equals. The severed hand that goes about
its business is particularly inspired. I have a collection of about 30
of the images and they all make your flesh creep.
left to
right
July 1952
March 1952
January 1952
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BOMB
LOOK July
1951 17 x 23cms illustration and detail to , "A Mission with the
ATOMIC BOMB; What it looks like and how it is delivered", by Jim
Berryman, Cartoonist for the Washington Star. "I was there because
Major.Gen Roscoe C.Wilson, Deputy Chief of Staff on operations for atomic
energy - and once a cartoonist at West Point - thought a cartoonist illustrator
could tell a big part of the A Bomb story without giving away any vital
technical information to our enemies."
lower image - silver lining advert for INCO Nickel March 1954 20 x 24cms
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CIVIL
DEFENCE
advert for PURE PAK November 1956 a simulated exercise - you can tell
because of the ELASTOPLAST bandages and mentionable wounds. Various details
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ATTACK
AND JIBE
First Insult
Your Enemy
LOOK
magazine feature April 10 1951.
SOVPHOTO captioned by the Saturday Evening Post in August
1951.
a most revealing
indication of America's belief in its own technical superiority - yet
none of this lessens the Fear. From LOOK magazine April 10th 1951.
LOOK magazine,
to the feature, "Communism Heir of Fascism" by William Henry
Chamberlin. November 1948.
detail of
US Savings Bond advert, March 1964 7 x 8cms.
advert for
Western Electric; October 1951 17 x 24 cms. The Reds haven't ... a telephone
network. Well, and there I was, getting all scared about a nation without
a telephone network ! Signed "Moore"
Then Overestimate
Them ...
November
1961, advert for Radio Free Europe , 19 x 27cms.
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HIROSHIMA
AND NAGASAKI
Main images Illustrated London News Sept. 22nd 1945
But also coverage of Tokio Illustrated London News Sept. 15 1945
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THE
HOME FRONT
US Savings Bond ad (Censored) advert 1952
MAP, members
of the Communist Party in each State and my clear favourite of all items
kept in my Cold war Archive; like some mapping of the outbreak of disease
or the sighting of some rare bird - Pity the Lone Commie in Mississippi
s, January 1962. For those in the shelters just before the Cuban Missile
Crisis, the note reads that Bonds are Fireproof.
How many Reds does it take.... ?
An advert
for the American Railway Car Institute , January 1951. "Freight cars
are a weapon..." 20 x 24cms.
Black and white drawing of the Bomber - Electric Light and Power Companies,
, December 1951. Full page advert in the style of Ripley's "Believe
it or Not". Even the Government are Reds. Trust your friendly local
power companies - but also read the Diaries of David Lilienthal.
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SENATOR
JOE
Although
the early stages of his conduct made him a suitable standard bearer for
the anti-Communist left, Joe McCarthy's behaviour during the later stages
of the Senate Investigation Committee revealed him to be out of control.
Even a rightwing cartoonist on a conservatist journal in the UK (Illingworth
at PUNCH) could only see a drab vision of McCarthy's
pollution of the political landscape.
and as always with Illingworth, it may not be funny or clever but it was
well drawn. From PUNCH March 17 1954, measuring 17 x
22cms.
Herblock, Washington Post August 1951 note McCarthy with
the Smear bucket
DUFFY's cartoon in the Saturday Evening Post July 1951
10 x 15cms The editorial is headed "Reds Spread Myth That Fascism
Threatens U.S.!" which in Cold War Code means Guilty your Honour.
Or, "Blame That Bastard McCarthy"
How they
are photographed..."The American Communist Party" Saturday
Evening Post Sept 24 1954
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SHELTERS
Weekly Illustrated (UK) July 1955
LOOK magazine October 1948 full page on an attractive substitute for burrowing
into the ground.
LOOK December 5 1961
LOOK December 5 1961
1952
and even your furniture can make it through c1949
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ANTI-SOCIALISM
The Socialist
Menace
America's Independent Light and Power Companies were
the most consistently anti-socialist of all advertisers in the
period after 1945.
Here are some their most characteristic images
Feb 1954
1954
February 1950
1955
Electric Light and Power Companies, , December 1951. Full page advert
in the style of Ripley's "Believe it or Not". Even the Government
are Reds. To the friendly local power companies - read the Diaries of
David Lilienthal.
Another single-minded advertiser was Republican Steel whose images regularly
spooked the populace with predictions of Socialist America. October 1951
and July 1951
The DeMille Foundation LOOK April 1949, the DeMille Foundation
anti-Union imagery
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BRAINWASHING
Illustration
by Larry Kritcher The Brainwashed Pilot written by Sidney Herschall Small
Saturday Evening Post March 1951 18 x 25 |
OTHER
WEAPONS AND DIAGRAMS
LOOK February
1957 16 x 22cms
undated c1949 16 x 24cms
LOOK magazine August 15th 1950 and a detail of the thing
LOOK October
28 1947 |
BOLSHEVISM
AND THE BRITISH PRESS
Ghilchik's
cover for The Passing Show , May 1922, Lloyd George flirting with the
Bolshevik in the cause of British Trade; Batting for Britain. "The
Cupboard Lover and his Loydie Love". Here the standard image
of the Revolutionary is given formal dress to denote that he is a
diplomat. MORE
Leo Cheney's illustration,"The Emissary of Progress - Does anybody
want to buy some jewels ?", from The Passing Show October 1920 measuring
the full page, 19 x 27 cms. The artist dwells on the concept of the regicide
with severed heads and a bag of treasure from the Russian Royal family.
The hatching of the background makes the scene gloomier. He uses stereotypical
features. Many British critics of Communism/ Bolshevism played on the
fact that many of the Soviet pioneers were Jewish. This humour magazine,
The Passing Show , with its bluff John Bull figure, The Showman , was
as Conservative/ conservative as Punch , and quite capable of brazenly
linking what the British considered as continental excess with home-grown
Socialism - hence the outlandish inclusion of the Daily Herald . Reading
of that journal was, as we know, de rigeur among those committed to the
furtherance of the Bolshevist Terror.
"The Darkening of the Sun", Punch's warning of the end of civilisation
as we know it, June 22 1927, p.687, by Bernard Partridge; and the year
after the General Srike. List of familiar items; the boots (snow still
clinging); the dagger (Royal Blood); and flat peasant's cap. It always
seems a defeat or laziness if Civilisation has to be written in letters.
The
Showman's Rocket, November
1920 (Lloyd George views Bolshie strapped to a firework).
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THE RED
ARMY CAN BE BEATEN
Illustration
to Robert Spencer Carr's Saturday Evening Post Story The Dictator's Double,
November 1952 22 x 26cms
The Poor Old Earth May 1953 10 x 14cms, by Duffy.
Cummings of the Daily Express , 24 August 1953, "Back to Where it
all Started"
see Cummings, These Uproarious Years, McGibbon and Key, London 1954.
cartoon by Shirvanian
December 1959
spot illustration 1947
5 x 11cms
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A
MISCELLANY - TOP BAR
FACE OFF
WHO RUNS
AMERICA?
HAMMER
AND SICKLE Unsigned cartoon in PUNCH magazine November 15 1950, 18 x
23 (Illingworth ?) of the Soviets and the Chinese threat to India; and
a candidate for the Cliche of the Year.
TIMETABLE
GLACIER
COLD WAR
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SEIZING
DETROIT
FRIENDLY
IVAN
How Do You
Do, Tovarich ! Sympathy for the Soviets.
These are sympathetic images of Russian people from the period of the
Second World War and just after. The blockade of Berlin and finally, the
Korean War put paid to any thoughts of treating Russians as if they were
human beings.
IVAN advert
for sweeteners 1944 19 x 27cms.
Superior Steel Corp., June 1944 22 x 26cms and the flags of Britain, China
and the Soviet Union.
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DESIGN
and the Cold War a lecture and its notes Chris Mullen US 1945-1991
from ESQUIRE September 1951 10 x 22cms.
1. Definitions of the Cold War .
a) ideological
b) geopolitical
c) economic
2. Partners and Rivals, the historical background.
Some events referred to,
1941 Dec, Pearl Harbour, Japan attacks the West Coast.
1942, UK signs 20 year friendship treaty with USSR
1945, May Victory in Europe Day, August 6th, atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
1947, Allies conference in Moscow on the fate of Germany fails
March 12th The Truman Doctrine.
1948 USSR blockades Berlin.
1949, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation formed
1950 beginning of the Korean War
1956, UK France and Israel seize the Suez Canal Soviet troops put down
Hungarian Revolution.
1962, Cuban Missile Crisis, Nuclear War narrowly averted.
1963 death of President Kennedy, escalation of the Vietnam War.
3. Images of Aggression,
3,1 advertisements for Bohn Copper products and the use of the Severed
Hand
3.2 magazine spreads, "Could the Reds take Detroit"
(and what would they want with it anyway ?) ;
Build your own Foxhole, the ultimate dream of a world free of the working
classes.
3.3 documentaries, Duck and Cover, the Government Civil Defence films.
The March of Time Newsreels, directed by Louis de Rougemont.
Recommended
Study Material
Films
Atomic Cafe US 1982;
US Propaganda documentary;
Dr.Strangelove, and How I Learnt to stop worrying and love the Bomb, directed
by Stanley Kubrick, 1963;
Emilio de Antonio, Point of Order , documentary about Joseph McCarthy;
for Cold War films, particularly the impact of monster and atomic movies
see Peter Biskind, Seeing is Believing , Pluto, London 1983.
Art
HB.Chipp, Theories 0f Modern Art , Univ of Calif Press, 1968, Chapter
on Art and Politics;
Steven Heller(ed) War Heads, Cartoonists draw the Line, Sphere London
1983
Politics ;
David Caute, The Great Fear ; the anti-Communist purge under Truman and
Eisenhower, Simon & Schuster NY 1979;
Jessica Mitford, A Fine Old Conflict, Quartet London 1978;
Duncan Campbell, The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier , American Military Power
in Britain, Paladin London 1986;
Duncan Campbell, War Plan UK , Burnett London 1982. Original
Source Material .
Ernst and Loth, Report on the American Communist , Holt NY 1952.
Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation , My Years in the State
Department, Norton NY 1969.
Herblock Looks at Communism , Washington Post Washington
1959
Popular Science , March 1951, How to build a Family Foxhole.
British Images of the Bolshevist. 1917 - .
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